10 top telecommuting jobs to live abroad

Telecommuting jobs abroad

As technology makes it increasingly easy to punch the clock in a
virtual office, employees once tied to a desk may now have the
ability to work from home or even abroad. In fact, studies from
Global Workplace Analytics, a research and consultancy firm
headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., show that approximately 3
million U.S. workers that aren’t self-employed work from home full
time while an estimated 52 million workers have
telecommute-compatible jobs. For those who’d rather converse in
foreign languages than by the company water cooler, here are 10 of
the best gigs for telecommuting while abroad.

IT professionals

The industry is booming as are telework opportunities. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for computer and
information systems management professionals is $115,780 per year
while the sector is projected to grow 18 percent between now and
2020. Norbert Kubilus, president of the Association of Information
Technology Professionals, says that certain jobs within the field
lend themselves more naturally to teleworking.

“Analysts, programmers, web developers, help desk staff can work
remotely,” he says. “If people are responsible for the maintenance
of a server, that can be done remotely, but you also have to have
people who are hands-on to take care of installation and so
on.”

Kubilus adds that IT pros are most likely to find telecommute
opportunities in small- and medium-size companies and that those
eyeing remote working opportunities should seek out positions that
advertise the possibility for telecommuting.

“Most times, you’re not going to go to a company, interview for
a job and mention, ‘Oh, I want to telecommute,'” he says. “That’s
not going to fly.”

Translation and interpretation

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This job might actually reward you for moving abroad. Workers
with fluency in a foreign language and sharp communication skills
can land jobs in verbal and written translation regardless of where
they live, says Carla Itzkowich, executive director of
International Contact, a multilanguage communication company that
produces marketing materials in 100 languages.

“(Translators) need to invest between $600 to $2,000 in tools of
the trade, but once you’re set up, you pretty much can work your
own hours, your own time, your own home,” she says.

Startup costs include a foreign language dictionary, a computer,
a fast Internet connection that can support audio or video
interpretation sessions and translation management software that
prevents workers from using the same verbiage over and over again.
Itzkowich adds that certification from an organization such as the
American Translators Association can help someone break into the
field but may not be absolutely necessary. Pay is typically by the
word, so speed and accuracy count. Those who speak a less common
language or who can specialize in an area such as finance or
medical translation can charge more, says Itzkowich.

Sales personnel and consultants

“Sales people are most conducive to remote offices because
(many) don’t have an office location in a traditional office. They
are located in their homes or customer locations,” says Jay Mulki,
a Northeastern University associate professor of marketing who has
conducted extensive research in the remote working field.

According to the Telework Research Network, sales jobs dominate
the work-at-home workforce. A 2011 paper published by the group
shows that 70 percent of those working from home hold positions in
management, professional, sales and office jobs.

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Sales leaders looking to work abroad should seek out companies
that have a broad consumer base in the employee’s country of
choice, says Mulki. They, and all other remote workers, should
create a separation between work and home life.

“When you work at home, work never goes away,” he says.

PR managers, marketing specialists

According to the Council on Public Relations Firms, a trade
organization of more than 100 PR companies, approximately half of
its member PR firms experienced double-digit growth during 2011.
For 2012, one-third of PR firms expect to increase hiring for
workers coming from fields outside of public relations.

Since much of the job revolves around communication, PR workers
must be able to draft anything from speeches to press releases and
should be able to create and control their clients’ public
images.

The upside is that much of that work can be done remotely. While
public relations work lends itself to telecommuting both
domestically and abroad, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports
that employees can expect good job prospects, but long hours — in
2010, nearly one-third of workers in this field clocked in more
than 40 hours per week. The field is projected to increase 21
percent between now and 2020 while the median annual wage currently
hovers around $57,550.

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Software developers

Someone has to develop applications, build computer games and
create the next wave of can’t-live-without-’em digital tools. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median salary for
software developers is currently $90,530, while the job market will
grow much faster than average — by 30 percent between now and
2020.

Barry Frangipane, co-author of the book “The Venice Experiment,”
a memoir of his experience working as a software developer for a
U.S. company while living in Italy, says that telecommuters working
abroad should make sure that they can still interact with their
U.S.-based coworkers. To do that, Frangipane’s company set up a
webcam so that he could participate in weekly company meetings from
Italy.

“I could see people at the office at the meetings and they could
see me,” he says. “We felt like we were really connected.”

Developers working abroad should also have access to
technological upgrades the company makes. To ensure that his work
stayed up-to-date, Frangipane kept one laptop in his U.S.-based
workplace, one with him in Italy and linked the two using remote
access software.

Customer service representatives

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In the ever-expanding world of telecommuting, call center and
helpline personnel lead the charge, says Kate Lister, president of
the Telework Research Network and co-author of the book “Undress
for Success: The Naked Truth about Making Money at Home.” While
wages in this sector usually lean on the low side — the Bureau of
Labor Statistics shows that customer service reps earn a median
salary of $30,460 per year — opportunities abound in companies that
range from medical helplines to fast-food chains.

“When you order a pizza, sometimes the dispatcher is sitting at
home dispatching it from somewhere else in the country,” she says.
“Even the IRS helpline folks are (sometimes) working from
home.”

Telecommuting in this field comes with its own set of
challenges, adds Lister. Finding jobs can be difficult with the
wealth of work-from-home scams on the Web, and employees must have
a quiet space where they work.

Health care

Fall ill at a hospital in the U.S. and a transcriptionist in
Australia might write up your doc’s notes, a specialist in South
America could examine your test results, and a top surgeon in
Europe could lead the operation by video chat. That’s why health
care is one of the top fields for telecommuting, says Sara Sutton
Fell, CEO and founder of Flexjobs.com, a job search site that
specializes in telecommute, part-time jobs and positions with
flexible schedules.

“The (health care) subcategories that we see the most
(telecommuting jobs) in are nursing, pharmaceutical, case
management, therapy, medical coding, nutrition and psychiatry,” she
says. “So much of medicine now is digital. … You don’t have to be
in a room looking at an X-ray anymore.”

Fell says that telecommuting positions in this field range from
data analysts and health care project managers to neurosurgeons who
work remotely. Despite the increase in medical telecommute jobs,
many positions still require workers to be physically present. To
ensure that working from abroad is possible, employees should seek
out telecommuting positions and clarify the parameters of
telecommuting with their boss upfront.

Graphic design

Workers can create logos, websites, publicity materials and
marketing products from any corner of the globe and get paid
decently to do so. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 29
percent of graphic designers are self-employed, meaning that many
can make their own schedules, and the median pay is $43,500 per
year.

Despite the independent nature of the job, many designers work
in teams or on collaborative projects. To stay in sync with
stateside team members, Jay Mulki says that employees working
abroad should focus on communicating clearly, taking active steps
to stay in contact with key team members and fulfilling every
promise they make in a reasonable time frame.

“You need to come across as a person who is self-disciplined,
who can control their work in terms of doing the work and
initiating the work … and be able to access people within the
organization,” he says.

Education

Training specialists, online instructors, curriculum writers …
the list of telecommuting positions in the education field is
extensive. Sara Sutton Fell of Flexjobs.com says that telework
education jobs range from language instructors who conduct lessons
by phone or video chat to those who work behind the scenes creating
and perfecting online teaching tools. The majority of teleworking
jobs are available at the college and university levels, she says,
“but there’s a surprising amount at lower levels or in
administrative on the education side.”

The trick to landing a telework position is seeing through the
scams. To help eliminate ads designed to sap your time and money,
Fell recommends using search terms such as “telecommute” and
“telecommuting” over “work from home” or “work at home,” and
carefully investigate companies that post listings for
telecommuting jobs.

Administrative managers, support

According to Flexjobs.com, there are currently more telecommute
and flexible job positions in administrative work than any other
field except medical and health care. Admin jobs may offer the
ability to work from anywhere, but salaries are usually low.
Workers holding positions such as office managers, financial
clerks, bookkeepers, material recording personnel and
administrative assistants have median salaries that range from
$24,100 for bank tellers to $36,610 for desktop publishers, reports
the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Frangipane says that workers in any field who have a job that
doesn’t allow telecommuting may be able to slowly negotiate a
telework option. Frangipane himself started working from home one
day per week, then ramped it up to five days over time.

“Once they could see that I had high productivity working from
home, then I said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about moving my home,'” he
recounts. “Regardless of where you are in the world, if you work
the same hours as your office normally expects, then it really
doesn’t seem to matter much when you move your home a little
farther away, like 4,500 miles.”